Tethered Styluses
Did you ever notice that when you go into
a bank, that is if you still do and not just drive up to the ATM,
there are several areas to fill out deposit or withdrawal slips?
These areas all have pens that are attached to tethers so you dirty
little thieves don’t walk off with these valuable pieces of
calligraphic art. The tethers are so strong that if you were to pull
with any strength at all the entire table would no doubt tear away
from its mooring and you would have to walk out of the bank dragging
this piece of Formica behind you.
Of course the final irony in this tale is that
the tether will never come free but the pen has no ink in it……..and
neither do any of the pens on the table because to change the pen
takes 45 minutes and involves a pair of bolt cutters. Do I smell a
Darwin Award anywhere near here?
So what does this charming little ditty
(great word) have to do with styluses? Good point. The point is that
tethered styluses are becoming more popular than pens. After reading
the above tale, I’m sure you can see a major reason…..THEY DON'T
NEED TO BE RE-FILLED!
Now wait…think about it. You see these
things everywhere. At the supermarket in the self check out lane.
You get to the register and there is a tethered stylus so you can
input all of your personal debit card information as three people
behind you look over your shoulder. What about at your local
building supply/home improvement big box store? Same thing at the
Wal-Mart, Sears, Kmart, plus anywhere else that you buy something.
I haven’t even mentioned the UPS driver that
has you sign his tablet with the stylus that’s tethered to it. I
haven’t even started in on kiosks that are now located everywhere
and dispense everything from movies to I-Pods.
I believe I have made my point……tethered
styluses are everywhere. Do you know what that means? It means that
you might very well be in position where you need to buy a batch of
these for your company or group. So you get the request from above
and you sit there staring at the form and you say “where the heck am
I supposed to find tethered styluses?” Well, actually if you keep
reading this you won’t ever have to ask that because you will know
exactly what kind of tether you need, what kind of stylus to attach
to it and exactly where to buy it at a great price. It really is
like magic, isn’t it?
There is a step by step process to picking
out the right tethered stylus for the job so that you don’t look
like a complete idiot when they all disintegrate into many pieces.
Or if the stylus doesn’t quite reach the object you need it to
reach. Believe me there are better, more complex ways to look like a
fool than to pick the wrong tethered stylus so read on.
The stylus tip itself should be of primary
interest to you. Why? Because most probably the device to which you
are attaching the tether is most probably quite costly, such as a
kiosk, a fancy register, a computer screen, or a check out device.
These devices are complex, expensive, and if the screens get
scratched up, they won’t work until they are fixed. So the stylus
point is critical to these devices staying up and running. In order
to get a brief education as to the workings of the stylus tip, go
here  and
read this short article. That should tell you what you need to know.
The take home point here (bad pun) is that there is a huge
difference in the type and quality of tip used to make a stylus and
the wrong choice could easily damage your device. Since there is not
a huge amount of data on the web concerning stylus construction,
this article is critical for those deciding on a stylus for their
device no matter how big or small it is.
Once you have been schooled as to why the
tip is so important, the next step is to decide on the type of
tether that will best suit the job. Again, the choices are many. To
give you an idea as to tether choices,
this    might
be a great place to start. This explanation should tell you
everything necessary in deciding on the right tether for the job.
You will see that there are several types of materials used to make
a tether, from urethane to aircraft cable to nylon, as well as other
types of materials.
And you thought this would be a
“no-brainer” didn’t you? You see what you’ve learned? It all comes
down to a basic proposition that is time tested; you get what you
pay for. All of the styluses mentioned here as well as the tethers
are high quality items that use the best materials. When you’re
talking about a piece of equipment that can run into the several
thousand dollars apiece, wouldn’t it be just plain dumb to blow it
on an item that is a couple of dollars in cost? But that is exactly
what will happen if the wrong tethered stylus is used with these
high cost devices. In other words, a tethered stylus is not the
place to save some money, and they are NOT all created equally. Now
that you have read these articles, you know that as well.
So, now you feel you
are ready to make an informed decision on a tethered stylus for your
company’s roll out of its latest and greatest user friendly device.
Where do you go to buy them? Well, once again, we at
PDAstylus.com are here to serve. We have compiled a listing
of a few of the better sites to consider when you are ready:
Tethered Stylus Sites:
www.stylisource.com - This is a valuable site when you want
anything to do with styluses or accessories for your phone, PDA, or
high end electronic device. They have dozens of tethered stylus
options to consider, Rubber tethers, retractable tethers, aircraft
cable tethers, as well as nylon and urethane tether material. Not to
mention types of tethers such as lanyard style, straight or coiled.
They have imprinting options for the personalized touch as well as
being able to supply quantities from 1 to 100,000.
The site is easy to move through and they offer
educational “white paper” style documents to educate, not just sell.
Take a look and you’ll see that they know the tethered stylus
business.
www.thenerds.net – This site has a limited quantity of
tethered styluses for specific tasks. Not a lot of selection, but if
you know what you are looking for, they might have it.
www.tethered-stylus.com – There are a few different types of
tethered styluses here, although it is basically a jump site to get
to
www.1st-things.com. They are located in the UK so shipping
might be an issue.
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